| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | An Even-song | | By Sydney Dobell (1824–1874) |
| | | IN the spring twilight, in the colour’d twilight | |
| Whereto the latter primroses are stars, | |
| And early nightingale | |
| Letteth her love adown the tender wind, | |
| That thro’ the eglantine | 5 |
| In mixed delight the fragrant music bloweth | |
| On to me, | |
| Where in the twilight, in the colour’d twilight, | |
| I sit beside the thorn upon the hill. | |
| The mavis sings upon the old oak tree | 10 |
| Sweet and strong, | |
| Strong and sweet, | |
| Soft, sweet, and strong, | |
| And with his voice interpreteth the silence | |
| Of the dim vale when Philomel is mute! | 15 |
| The dew lies like a light upon the grass, | |
| The cloud is as a swan upon the sky, | |
| The mist is as a brideweed on the moon. | |
| The shadows new and sweet | |
| Like maids unwonted in the dues of joy | 20 |
| Play with the meadow flowers, | |
| And give with fearful fancies more and less, | |
| And come, and go, and flit | |
| A brief emotion in the moving air, | |
| And now are stirr’d to flight, and now are kind, | 25 |
| Unset, uncertain, as the cheek of Love. | |
| As tho’ amid the eve | |
| Stood Spring with fluttering breast, | |
| And like a butterfly upon a flower, | |
| Spreading and closing with delight’s excess, | 30 |
| A-sudden fann’d and shut her tinted wings. | |
| In the spring twilight, in the colour’d twilight, | |
| Ere Hesper, eldest child of Night, run forth | |
| On mountain-top to see | |
| If Day hath left the dale, | 35 |
| And hears, well-pleased, the dove | |
| From ancient elm and high | |
| In murmuring dreams still bid the sun good night, | |
| And sound of lowing kine, | |
| And echoes long and clear, | 40 |
| And herdsman’s evening call, | |
| And bells of penning folds, | |
| Sweet and low; | |
| O maid, as fair as thou | |
| Behold the young May moon! | 45 |
| O, happy, happy maid! | |
| With love as young as she | |
| In the spring twilight, in the colour’d twilight, | |
| Meet, meet me, by the thorn upon the hill! | | | | |
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